Epic Rap Battles in the Classroom

The learning objective on Chalimar Chieza’s Early American History classroom reads as follows: “The student will create sick rhymes that showcase their knowledge of the roots of government in the United States.”

Epic Rap Battles of History is one of my favorite YouTube channels. I knew that giving students opportunities to write songs about content was a good assessment, but I never thought of utilizing raps / slam poetry specifically. So much opportunity for students to show what they know in this creative assessment.

Chalimar Chieza has been doing rap battles in her history classes for years. In this episode we talk about:

– Why she started utilizing raps / slam poems
– What the ‘battle’ element could look like
– How she sets students up for success
– How she assesses their work and knowledge of the content